why ................

[trueblackpercula]

Lmao

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by trueblackpercula

What's the reason we go Bare bottom again?

I did so I would have control.

Any time you have substrate, it's the largest living organism in the system, and it controls what the system will do.

[brandon0350]

Originally Posted by Spanky

I did so I would have control.

Any time you have substrate, it's the largest living organism in the system, and it controls what the system will do.

i like that

[trueblackpercula]

I have been reading so much that Ineed to take a break form this hobby. Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I was looking into a vortech power head any thoughts on this new product?

[nycreef]

I am confused guys. I had a 110 with sps corals/fish ectand a dsb because i didnt have to maintain the tank as with a bb tank. Isnt it more natural to have a dsb with all the critters doing clean up? worms and critters eating the poop and cleaning the rock? I was originally instructed 3 years ago by this board towards a dsb and now have things changed?

I am about to venture in to a 500 gallon reef and fish tank. Im still thinking about going with dsb since my last tank was running great with minimal effort. never had any problems nor cleanup issues.
id love some feed back on this.

[Little Luey]

I really think is about personal preferance, if you like sand, then have sand, but you need to know how to properlly take care of it, if you want to go BB then you should educate yourself on this method.
The fish poop and other nasty stuff has to come out of the tank anyways, so if you want to do it or you want your animals to do it, then again, all animals produce some kind of organic waste, right?
The DSB does not remove the waste, just hides/traps it, this is why you need to change it every so often. If you manage to run your tank succesfully with sand and like looking at sand, by all means use it.
I have not personally have anyone who looks at my tank ask me: Where is the sand?, they always want to see the fish and the "plants" (coral).

[King-Kong]

Originally Posted by JMBoehling

I also wanted a stable reef tank without the need of Calcium reactors and Kalk stirrers. Since going BB, almost 6 months now, my reef has never looked better, and my Calcium and Alk stay NSW levels just dripping Mrs. Wages

What allows for this? I had thought that having aragonite based substrate would help maintain those levels, while with BB, a calcium reactor would be more necessary.

[trueblackpercula]

My tank is small (120)compared to others. I dose b-ionic every other day and my calcium is 440ppm and my alk/dkh is 10.8 hope this helps.

[Weatherman]

Originally Posted by King-Kong

What allows for this? I had thought that having aragonite based substrate would help maintain those levels, while with BB, a calcium reactor would be more necessary.

It appears to be the exact opposite.

Most people see a dramatic drop in alkalinity demand after removing a sand bed. I did with both my 155 and 180. Alk demand initially dropped by over 80%, and has just barely recovered to 50% of its pre-sand-removal values. It appears that all the biological and abiotic processes going on in mature sand beds are huge consumers of alkalinity.

Aragonite sand doesn't provide any significant buffering, unless you normally allow your tank water pH to drop into the mid and upper 7s.

[clockwork]

I have used dsb's and ssb's but none has been as easy to maintain as a BB tank . I jumped aboard over 2 years ago and don't plan on making the trip back .

I also like the idea that I can see the waste thats no processed and I can get rid of it . I also like that with a BB tank the substrate is one less variable .

I even have a softie tank which has been barebottom for 2 years + and everything loves it including my 2ft anemone.

SO if there was one reason which would describe BB its CONTROL

[gwaco]

face it " we're control freaks " !

[VWD]

Well I am only going to add, I have better coral growth with my BB then I ever had with a DSB, SSB or plenum. I don't know if it is less work, I am always doing water changes and making sure the tank bottom is clean. not hard but I do get some areas that collect stuff and I siphon it out two times a month. But my clams and corals are doing awesome. I have also removed My reactor and have no need for it. I will be using it on my frag tanks now.

[VWD]

Originally Posted by Weatherman

It appears to be the exact opposite.

Most people see a dramatic drop in alkalinity demand after removing a sand bed. I did with both my 155 and 180. Alk demand initially dropped by over 80%, and has just barely recovered to 50% of its pre-sand-removal values. It appears that all the biological and abiotic processes going on in mature sand beds are huge consumers of alkalinity.

Aragonite sand doesn't provide any significant buffering, unless you normally allow your tank water pH to drop into the mid and upper 7s.

This is good info, somethings to think about. I am pro BB thats all I can say.

[gwaco]

Originally Posted by VWD

Well I am only going to add, I have better coral growth with my BB then I ever had with a DSB, SSB or plenum. I don't know if it is less work, I am always doing water changes and making sure the tank bottom is clean. not hard but I do get some areas that collect stuff and I siphon it out two times a month. But my clams and corals are doing awesome. I have also removed My reactor and have no need for it. I will be using it on my frag tanks now.

exactly what is your frequency of water changes ? i honestly have found that i don't need to change out water . i realize that some of the elements are used up , but i just add in salt when my salinity starts to drop . i know i have gone on about this in the past , but why change anything if there is no reason ? i think if your nutrients are getting that high you need to look into why ? think of it this way , we've removed the sandbeds because it stored nutrients which kept the water more stable until they filled up , at which time you had to do lots of water changes to keep the nitrates down , now that element is gone , but your nitrates still go up ! why ? because you still treat it the same way as when you had a sandbed , remember your in control so you have to make adjustments . are you feeding too much , do you need to adjust your skimmer , change your photo period , change the flow around , etc. i have to say in the past year i have done maybe two 10 % water changes , i'm not saying this to brag but just to show you that the water stays very stable with out all the water changes . and yes i know it doesn't hurt to do them .

[panic]

I like my bb system because I can look at the bottom and know if I need to check my nitrates and how much my fish are eating by the amount of detrius I see.